Guinn's Pass & Galatea Lakes August 25, 2022

Today's hike was in the making back on July 13th when we last shared a day in the mountains.  Since that day our life happenings took us in different directions, mine not so far reaching as my friends.  With hours and hours and hours worth of stories to now share, it was time to take on Guinn's Pass and Galatea Lakes, that objective we set back on July 13th.  

Early starts are the best these days and that's what we went for.  We turned off the main highway west to head south along "Highway 40 Where Life Begins" and I then felt that feeling that I was already in my happy place even before stepping foot on the hiking trail.  When our boots did hit the trail, we first had to descend to the river and cross this suspension bridge.  No biggie descending, but in the back of my mind I knew it would be a biggie ascending at the end of the day! 

The approximate six km hike up to Lillian Lake through the forest is not my favourite place to be.  While it seemed to take forever, in hindsight it passed somewhat quickly thank you to the multitude of wonderful stories my friend had to share.  We arrived at Lillian Lake while it appeared most of the backcountry campers were still enjoying slumber.

From Lillian Lake, we worked our way up through a bit more forest along a rough, rooty, rugged trail. After that we crossed a broken up boulder field which led us to the junction where we planned to make the decision whether to ascend to Guinn's Pass first or descend to the Galatea Lakes.  We based our decision on what the weather looked like around us.  We opted to make The Pass our priority.  While scampering through the dull coloured rocky section, the sky was on the grey side, both which helped make the fireweed pop.

As we were heading towards Guinn's Pass, the Lower Galatea Lake came into view behind us.  

photo credit Malcolm

Our focus was to get to Guinn's Pass and possibly to Guinn's Peak which is what my friend is eyeing.  

We arrived at Guinn's Pass!  I knew at this point for me it would be best if we made this our high point.  I still wanted to tack on seeing the two Galatea Lakes on the way back.  I enjoy seeing this view across the way.  I was at a few of those passes and on top of a few of those peaks on this day.  

We confirmed this would be our high point, we admired the view,  

 then we embraced that rocky mountain high feeling! 

at our happy place

(don't be fooled, mine is the smaller pack at my friend's feet)

It was time to dine!  There would be no escaping the light winds up where we were exposed to all elements.  We scooted up a bit to where there were large boulders to settle down on.  An extra upper layer did the trick to help keep warm.  This was our lunch time view! 

view as we began the descent from Guinn's Pass 

Lower Galatea Lake came back into view 

There was lots of blue in the sky and it was very warm when we arrived back at the junction.  

We decided all conditions were on our side to carry on with visiting the Galatea Lakes. 

Lower Galatea Lake

This is the view of Lower Galatea Lake after hiking around it to the back side.

From the back side of the Lower Lake, there is a trail that ascends to the Upper Lake.  With the weather turning even more beautiful, we of course carried on up.  At a high point, this was the view looking back at the Lower Lake.

My friend arrived at the Upper Galatea Lake first and when I rounded the corner even before I saw the Lake, he gave me the thumbs up.  When I arrived where he was, this is what I saw!  WOW!  We were both impressed!  During a later conversation, we both agreed this was the highlight of our day. 

taking in the beauty

happy to be here

It was time for another dining break.  We found a trail that descended to the lake.  There were large boulders to comfortably settle down on and just be one with where we were.  We owned it outright!  This was our dining time view!

When it came time to carry on with our day, we discussed what route we wanted to take back to Lillian Lake.  Instead of going back the way we came around the Lower Galatea Lake, we picked up a trail that crossed the scree at the south side of the lake.  I had read about this obscure trail a few years back.  It appeared well trodden.  

working our way around a boulder field

We came to a spot where we had this view of Lillian Lake far below.  We could see an obvious trail hugging the tree line on the left so we went for it.  It turned out being a treat going down this way, although it was steep and rough in sections, yet we got to incorporate a loop into the day.

We exited from this trail landing on the main trail that meandered through the backcountry campground.  We aimed for a bench at Lillian Lake. We had some snacks here then began to attack the approximately six kms down through the forest back to the suspension bridge.  We did have this nice view for a short period of time on the way back.

We reached the suspension bridge!

view from the bridge

It was all uphill from here which just seems so wrong!  Really it was not that bad, it was a matter of just getting it done.  When it was done, I breathed a sigh of relief!  For the drive back to the city, we carried on with unfinished stories and began new ones.  By the time we arrived back, we were all caught up.  Now it's time to go forward living our life's happenings, making more stories to share another time!